LITMIR.BIZ

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but she forced a smile. “Hi. You’re here early.” Tessa had purposely arrived a half hour before her shift. Obviously, if she’d been trying to avoid Clay, her plan had failed miserably.

      And she still hadn’t started taking her her birth control pills, because she didn’t know if it would do any good at this point. But what she had done was decide to make an appointment with the head of Maternal Fetal medicine here at the hospital and see what she had to say.

      You would think as a doctor Tessa could formulate her own professional opinion. And she could, medically speaking. But it wouldn’t be objective. And that’s what she needed right now, someone to talk her off whatever ledge she was standing on.

      Clay still wasn’t smiling. “I need to warn you about something.”

      This time it wasn’t her stomach muscles that reacted but her heart, the organ racing within her chest. “Warn me about…?”

      Surely he didn’t know about the Pill fiasco.

      No. How could he? She’d told him she was on them, and he’d obviously believed her. And she had been. She certainly hadn’t been lying or trying to pull any kind of funny business.

      And if she wound up pregnant… would he still believe her then? That it had just been a fluke?

      “Come with me.”

      She shied back from him as if he was going to grab her hand, which of course he wouldn’t. Not here at the hospital.

      They did have practice today, so they would have seen each other at some point anyway.

      His eyes narrowed as he studied her for a minute, then he simply spun on his heel and walked toward the bank of elevators. Left to her own devices, she followed him, assuming that’s what he wanted. He pushed the button for her floor. “You might want to do something about it.”

      Again her heart skipped a time or two.

       Stop it, Tessa. He has no idea that you missed taking your contraceptives.

      She didn’t ask what he wanted her to do something about, figuring that’s why he’d come up to the floor with her. Maybe there was a problem with a patient. Or maybe even the one they’d worked on together. Except he wouldn’t be on this floor.

      “Is Mr. Phillips okay?”

      He glanced back at her. “As far as I know. I haven’t checked on him today.” He motioned at the desk.

      Her eyes skipped across it, seeing the two collection jars.

      Wait. The jars. Caren and Holly had mentioned them, and Caren had denied any wrongdoing.

      She walked slowly toward the desk, her eyes on the clear glass containers that were now lined with green bills. They were both stuffed almost full.

      And then she saw it.

      The labels had been changed.

      Oh, God.

      The simple names the jars had sported before had morphed into hand-drawn likenesses of them. Only these were no ordinary pictures. They’d each been made to look as if they were puckering up. And the jars been turned so the lips met… so she and Clay appeared to be kissing.

      Each other.

      She made a low sound of distress, and Clay moved to stand beside her. “It’s obvious that someone saw us outside the hospital.”

      “Are they all like this?” she whispered.

      “Every single one of them. It isn’t Lloyd’s doing this time.” His breath whistled out in a long pained sigh. “And the worst thing is, we’re not the only ones who’ve seen them.”

      Since the jars were in an open area on every floor, that stood to reason. “I guess the whole hospital knows about that kiss, then.” She groaned, knowing there were going to be endless comments and speculation about what was going on between her and Clay.

      And if she suddenly wound up pregnant?

      She swallowed hard.

      “Yes, the whole hospital knows.” He turned to face her. “And so do my mother and Molly.”

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

      TIME TO DO some damage control.

      Practice that afternoon had been a bust. Clay hadn’t been able to keep his mind on what was happening in the ring, and neither could Tessa, evidently, since Marcos—back in royal form after his hospital stint—had excoriated both of them. Publicly. And had told them to be back tomorrow for a private session.

      Everyone else was off the hook.

      There’d also been no end to the questions from Clay’s mom, who’d believed him when he’d said that Tessa had merely slept over. He’d even let her assume that he’d spent the night on the couch, although he never actually said that he had.

      Now she thought he’d lied to her, of all things.

      And had warned him about letting himself get too involved, reminding him that they’d already tried that path once and it hadn’t worked out. She didn’t want to see him get hurt.

      He was no longer a little boy, but he was still his mom’s son. She was worried about him. And probably with good reason. He’d been shocked by the depth of his response to Tessa the other night. As hard as he’d tried to keep things on an even keel, telling himself that it was all about one night of really good sex, somehow he knew it wasn’t. That was as much of a lie as letting his mom believe that he and Tessa had spent a platonic night together.

      As if he and Tessa could ever remain platonic.

      She drove him insane. And not in a good way.

      The worst thing had been when she’d peered a little bit closer at one of the jars and seen the check his mom had made out and slid inside it. It should have grated on him that his parents had voted for Tessa and not for him, but they knew how good she was at capoeira. It would be crazy to bet on anyone but her.

      Tessa’s face had blanched, turning as white as one of the paper sheets the hospital used to cover the exam tables. She hadn’t said a word, just backed away from the jars.

      He had a feeling her reaction had something to do with that discussion they’d had a couple of weeks ago about his parents paying for her education.

      But this wasn’t paying for anything. They were simply contributing to a worthy charity.

      But Tessa might not have taken it that way.

      Clay had been so worked up about his mom getting the wrong idea that he hadn’t bothered to see Tessa’s reaction as anything other than petulant. But maybe it was more than that.

      Tessa was proud. Very much so. Maybe because she hadn’t been born here, she felt as if she had more to prove.

      But he wasn’t a mind reader, neither did he have the time to worry about anything other than the well-being of his daughter. He was not going to drag her through another one of his failures.

      Which meant he needed to cool it with Tessa. Big-time.

      Only he didn’t want to.

      He wanted to sleep with her. Again. Despite everything that had gone on with the hospital and with his mom and Molly.

      He and Tessa had always been great together in that way. And she was a hot, giving lover who made him reach for the stars. The two of them had had some wild times together.

      His body couldn’t be blamed for remembering what they’d done and wanting to grab at more of the same. Especially since his love life with Lizza had been lukewarm at best. Once they’d married, she’d tolerated his advances, but beyond that she’d seemed perfectly content to keep to her own side of

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